Depth of Commitment

Chapter 1

The pushy parents of Ellie Walters had her lined up to marry Tony Wiseman, the eldest son of their influential friends, Sharon and Glen Wiseman. Glen was Mayor of the city.

Understandably, the beautiful brunette Ellie practically floored her displaced boyfriend Lucas May when she arranged to meet him and asked him to kill Tony 'to set her free'.

He gasped she had to be joking.

Ellie started at him, grabbing a lock of her hair and twisting it, as if she were a witch and had the power to twist Lucas around her finger. The fact was she didn't really know who she was as an adult in the sense of totally understanding herself because she'd be raised as a spoilt child.

"Lucas really, would I joke about you killing my fiancé?"

"K-kill?"

"Yes, if that's what it takes but I'm counting on you completing the job without bloodshed."

"B-bloodshed?"

"Dammit Lucas, stop partially repeating what I say. My specific request is for you to set me free and how you accomplish that is your choice, but don't fuck up."

"Duh," moaned shell-shocked Lucas as she dashed across the road and got into Tony's V8 sports car and sat, with plenty of space between herself and the driver, looking as uncomfortable as a sad shop-window dummy.

Just as Lucas was thinking he couldn't become involved in Elli's love life going belly-up, Tony began to pull out into the thoroughfare, spotted him and clearly sneered and gave him an upturned 2-fingure salute.

"You're for the chop asshole," Lucas muttered, without having any idea how that would be accomplished.

The computer analysts hot-shot was sour when he walked into the family kitchen and kissed his mother's left ear and belted her ass (which rather tickled her fancy, as they say) and was told he was expected to barbecue five steaks for dinner, at her command.

"Yes, mother dear."

"God, I remember trying to train you for eleven years and after I nursed you through a severe bout of 'flu, you began saying that automatically."

Lucas said nothing to avoid wasting the time of day. He'd long learned not to lock himself into conversations with his mother over matters of no interest to him.

"Who did you meet today whom I particularly know?"

"Ellie Walters."

"For goodness sake Lucas, keep away from her. She's being prepared for the biggest wedding in a few months that this city has seen in years. I'm aware that when you two pair-studied, the room would go quiet and whenever I'd go into the study when you two departed, the windows would be open and the smell of scent would be almost overpowering. That was enough for me to know what had been going on."

"No, you didn't mother unless you were aware that Ellie and I hurried home from school so fast to study that out feet got smelly from sweat."

"That is rubbish, and you know it Lucas."

"Then ignore the truth of what happened mother and make up your own fantasies."

Resting on his bed, Lucas remembered those study evenings in their last year at high school. With embarrassment, he also recalled that he taught Ellie one new position but she came across and taught him three.

Unbelievable.

His mind switched back to earlier than day when Ellie made her appeal: "Set me free."

Yeah right, but how.

Castration?

Quickly he rejected that option and tasted bile in his mouth.

He decided to take a nap, knowing that Ellie would have the brains to give him time to work something out before she brought it up with him again. He was on her case now because no way did he want that asshole screwing up Ellie physically or mentally over sex because she was a diva when it came to pulling out all stops.

* * *

Tony Wiseman arrived home ahead of his father and his mother said, "Some mumbling guy who gave his name as Lee, left a message asking you to meet him just north of the pier as he has valuable information for you."

"I don't know anyone named Lee."

"Um, he mumbled. It could have been Lew."

Tony said he knew two Lew's whose names were spelled differently.

"I guess I should check it out. We've been having some product missing in shipments coming by rail freight and he may know something, for a price. What time?"

He was told 9.30 sharp. Tony's mother told him to be careful.

Tony was getting out of his parked long-slung sports car and straightening up when a sack was dropped over his head and the strings pulled tight, forcing him to pull at the cord across his throat instead of drawing his pistol.

As he struggled, he felt the pistol removed from his inside pocket. He relaxed and the pressure on his throat eased.

"What do you want?" he asked shakily but there was no response from probably two men as he was frogged-marched a short distance. Two pairs of hands lifted him and dumped him into the tray of a pick-up. The sacking was eased momentarily as he was taped over his mouth.

Tony didn't have a clue what this was about and neither did he have a clue about the identify of the two assailants. Such tight security suggested he wasn't going to be terminated.

He was driven somewhere for about an hour, unloaded and carried inside somewhere, the door slammed shut and the vehicle drove off. It was absolutely quiet.

What the fuck? He assumed he faced an uncomfortable night.

Chapter 2

Tony awoke to find faint daylight filtering through the sacking.

He waited and waited.

Perhaps two hours later he heard a vehicle pull up. He tensed, expecting to learn his fate.

Friend or foe?

A guy said politely, "Good morning Tony."

He could say nothing because his mouth was covered. He thought the voice sounded familiar.

"Are you willing to drop Ellie Walters as your fiancée?"

He shook his head and received a searing kick on the left hip bone.

Murder was on his mind.

"You would have a safer and more comfortable life if you selected another girlfriend, Tony."

He wanted to dispute that but he was gagged. He waited for another kick that didn't come.

"Ellie was my girlfriend practically from our first day at high school Tony and now eight years later you are preparing to marry her with the consent you're wheedled from her."

Christ, his assailant and probable brains of the slick kidnapping was Lucas Babyface Mayfair. The bastard would swing for this.

Tony heard a basin or pot of water being filled at the tap and then water poured through the sacking over his face and along his clothes to his groin.

"Pal, I thought you might be anxious for a wash," chuckled his tormentor.

Tony wished that someone would cut him free and hand him an axe.

Lucas made coffee and drank it, apparently meditating. The pungent aroma reached Tony and he wished for a sip of coffee. It was torture.

Lucas put his empty cup on the counter and sighed, thinking he ought to turn into a better host.

He left the room and returned and began drilling through the floorboards and even appeared to be banging under the flooring and then a length of chain rattled.

Lucas then undid the tie and pulled the bag off and the prisoner lay blinking and looking disoriented. He found he was in a cabin.

"Where are I'm here?"

"Because your marriage banns were scheduled to be announced in church this evening but because of your non-appearance, that auspicious event will be cancelled, thereby marking the collapse of your plans to marry Ellie Lois Walters."

"You can't do that, it's horribly unfair."

"Shut-up asshole, you scarcely know the meaning of fairness."

Tony snarled, "What do you mean by that?"

"All in due course, you pathetic man."

Lucas began untying the ropes and Tony flexed muscles in preparation for the inevitable showdown and his revenge before he returned to his work as operations manager of his father's freight-forwarding and distribution business.

"Where's my car," he gritted.

"In your garage in perfect condition, though wiped clean of fingerprints."

"How the hell did you get into it; it has an incredibly secure automatic locking security system?"

"Oh, just a few tweaks here and there and I was able to roll back security. I am a computer diagnostic engineer."

"If my car has even a tiny new scratch I'll sue you and of course you will swing for master-minding my kidnapping."

"Correction, I argue that it was an involuntary but necessary temporary removal. You may soon see things my way."

"Yeah, just as I believe there's a cow on the moon. You are history Baby-face."

Freed from the ropes, Tony stood and stretched and moved various parts of his body to loosen them.

Then he turned, held up bunched fists and advanced on his tormentor.

Lucas warned, "Tony backdown otherwise this will not turn out as you expect."

"Bullshit, you irresponsible kidnapping me that is a crime and are attempting to interfere with my wedding plans uninvited. I'm taller and heavier than you. You'll be beaten to pulp and thrown in jail where your injuries may be attended."

"Tony, I implore you, don't."

By then, Tony was in range.

He opened hostilities by swinging in a heavy right-hand that Lucas took as a powerful blow to the left shoulder but riding with the blow to negate some of the power.

Retaliating with almost blinding speed, Lucas grabbed the back of Tony's head and pulled it forward and with his forehead stuck Tony's nose and squashed it into his opponent's face.

Letting the head go, he kneed the outgoing suitor in the abdomen and as the skunk sank to the floor, Lucas chopping moderately hard on the back of the neck. Tony's lights were out as he hit the ground.

Almost 10 minutes' later, Tony's eyes fluttered open and he groaned and with glee Lucas threw a prepared pot of cold water over the fallen foe's face.

Tony groaned and spat, "Bastard"

"My pleasure, Mr Wiseman Junior," Lucas said, laying on the charm thickly.

Forty-five minutes later, Tony was sitting on a chair, with his hands bound behind him.

"You'll swing for this, Mayfair."

He was ignored.

"Tony," Lucas said, in a voice sounding something like a Crown Prosecutor in the Supreme Court of Australia. "Will you hereby unequivocally renounce your intention to marry Ellie Lois Walters from this date forward and that renunciation is to last forever more.

"Go to hell, bozo."

"Very well Tony, in the light of your refusal to recant, you and/or your parents will suffer any or all of the following humiliations:

1) Public disclosure that money for your American Mustang came from the Mayor's Disaster Relief Fund and if it were meant as a temporary loan, it has never been paid back.

2) As operations manager of the firm you work for, you are receiving an undisclosed extraordinary bonus equal to 25% of your annual salary paid monthly, a bonus at a level that's not paid to any other executive in your father's firm.

3) Your mother has 25% ownership of Diamond Lil's Massage Parlour for upmarket business and professional men and women.

4) You failed to pass your final business degree examinations at Mt Royal University but the Senate awarded your degree nevertheless and that more or less coincided with your parents giving the university a donation of $75,000.

5) Your father's illegitimate daughter never grew up with your family and now manages Diamond Lil's Massage Parlour and is Diamond Lil.

Tony faced turned an unhealthy shade of while and was etched in shock.

Lucas felt his arms being freed and asked, "How did you get such intensely private information?"

"I'm one the top business continuity analysts in this country pal and it didn't take a great deal to hone up on my skills to gather the secret comprising information relating to your family and I must say I was staggered at what I managed to uncover. Here's the deal."

"You say nothing about your experiences overnight when released, call Ellie and tell her you are dumping her because she's too predicable in bed. Further, although you'll never regard me as a friend you must at least be civil with me. Complete our agreement with Ellie and I'll never threaten release of all that confidential information unless either Ellie and/or I come to harm under suspicious circumstances."

"Yes, yes Lucas. Let's shake on agreement that this entire matter is completely swept under the carpet to rot."

They shook, and slapped one another on the back, Tony was absolutely relieved that he and his family were no longer under threat of being exposed.

Chapter 3

Ellie received a call to meet Lucas urgently just north of the breakwater.

She ran toward him as he got out of his pick-up but stopped five feet short of him.

"What the fuck did you do to him. He sounded like a changed person and I think that's highly unlikely. He told me he was dumping me because I don't move my ass enough in bed and you for one know that's an unbelievable lie."

"Tony wouldn't tell me where he'd been and why missing person reports had been broadcast today and there was a photo of him in this morning's newspaper with a big question mark over his head with the comment that he'd appeared to have disappeared into thin air."

"Oh, I just arranged to have a little talk and apparently was rather convincing. He'll need his nose re-aligned. That's all there is to report. The rest is confidential under our agreement and I ask you to repeat nothing of what I've just said to you."

"Very well, I promise. Well thanks, I feel free."

"Where are you going?"

"To find someone juicy to fuck."

"What about me?"

"What about you?"

"Oh, never mind," Lucas said sourly, returning to his vehicle and muttering 'Bloody women'.

A week later, Lucas called Ellie and suggested they go to the movies and then a meal.

She declined.

"Why not?"

"I told you I wish to be free."

The call terminated and she didn't bother to thank him for being in contact.

Two nights later, twilight was fading and Ellie was parked just beyond the breakwater and walking her mother's dog Smudge, named for the colouring of her black and white coat.

A pickup with two men in dark clothing pulled up and parked a little way beyond her vehicle.

Ellie and Smudge arrived back at her car and she had just lifted Smudge into the back seat when a guy said something. She turned and something thick was stuffed into her mouth and a bag was pulled over her head. She struggled ineffectively and didn't manage to glimpse the man.

An accomplice and Lucas lifted Ellie on to the tray of the pick-up and pulled across the tonneau cover. The guy stayed with her while Lucas drove Smudge home in Ellie's car, parked it and let Smudge into the house and closed the door. There was a printed note in faint pencil attached to his collar:

'Mum, dashed off to go out with a friend and will stay the night with her. I've walked because her home is nearby.'

Lucas walked the half-mile back to his vehicle, hoping that the note, purposely written in light pencil, would keep the mother calm.

He dropped his assistant off and went up to his grandfather's old cabin in the hills and carried Ellie in and fastened her to the chain that Tony had been tethered to. He decided she ought to rest for a while before being put through the trauma of having her hood and gag removed and finding out her predicament. He had no way of knowing whether this attempt at 'gentle and persuasive discipline' would work in his favour or, at worse, he'd simply be converting Ellie into a hellcat.

Chapter 4

Panting, blinking and attempting to get her bearings, Ellie looked around when the bag was removed from her head. She froze in shock when her gaze fell upon Lucas.

He expected her to scream something like, "You bastard."

Instead, she looked at him stonily and asked, "Am I about to be disciplined?"

Lucas had a rapid re-think. He'd intended tickling her with a feather and playing with her nipples until she was screaming for it but suddenly that seemed inappropriate for this intelligent woman.

"Err no, not as such."

She considered that and asked what exactly did that mean.

"I did what you required, I set you free. But what was in it for me?"

She said coolly, "Oh, I expect you had the satisfaction of knowing an exceeding difficult job had been well done."

He sighed.

She asked him to free her of all restraints and he did that, gently and efficiently.

"I could turn you into the cops for kidnapping and mistreatment," she said.

"Go, take my vehicle. I'll stay overnight and walk home at dawn."

Ellie looked at him and winced when he immediately looked at the floor.

"I've been so unfair, giving you no real credit at all," she said softly, and he scuffed the floor with a toe of his shoe in embarrassment

"You took extreme risks for me and..."

"Enough, Ellie. The time for that is gone. Has it all been a loss for me or will you eventually come back to me?"

"You still like me that much?"

He nodded and said absolutely.

Ellie asked, "Would you like me to strip for sex now?"

He shook his head.

"What then?"

"I wish just to lie with you, tenderly."

She dropped on to the blanket where she'd be tethered and patted beside her.

He sank, heaving a long sigh.

Ellie said, "First a session of softness, think of it as reconnection. Then let's fall back to our old ways that we used to love so much."

"Sounds good to me," Lucas said. "I just wish to get back to pleasuring you and I'll be vigilant to ensure you always feel free."

"You needn't be too fussed about that. I now truly realize the depth of your commitment and probably we'll decide to get married soon. What do you think about inviting Tony and his parents to the wedding?"

The End